Bas-relief with cavalryman

Photogallery

Bas-relief with cavalryman
Bas-relief with cavalryman
Clementine Gallery I

This bas-relief was brought to light along with other artefacts, according to a plan that would appear to have been made in advance, during the visit made by Pius IX in 1849 as guest of Ferdinand II of Bourbon to the excavations of ancient Pompeii, buried following the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. In memory of the day and of his stay, the Bourbon sovereign donated the bas-relief to the Pope, along with the other objects discovered, and the gift was completed with other Pompeian artefacts and possibly also some of the material stored in the Museum of Naples.
The work, with traces of its original colouring, depicts a cavalryman in a short tunic and short cloak, with a wide-brimmed, floppy hat, striking the horse with a whip in the midst of a frenetic ride, caught at the moment in which the restrained horse rears up onto its hind legs. It is uncertain whether this is a Greek or Magno-Greek original - extraneous to Pompeii and brought there to enhance the Pope's astonishment at its “discovery”, or better used for decorative purposes by the Pompeian élites during the Roman age - or if it was a classically-styled relief from the first century B.C. or the first century A.D.